


the land of the living

by beepbeeprichie (ellewriteswrongs)



Series: it one-shots & song fics [2]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Aged-Up Losers Club (IT), Alternate Universe - College/University, Coming Out, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, First Kiss, Fix-It of Sorts, Love Confessions, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Richie Tozier & Stanley Uris Are Best Friends, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Road Trips, Smoking, Song Lyrics, Teenage Losers Club (IT), ben drives a mini van and you can't change my mind, that's minor but Important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-14 02:57:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20593556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellewriteswrongs/pseuds/beepbeeprichie
Summary: i started writing this before chapter 2 so no spoilers (there's a minor hint at the r+e thing though) but now i'm emo about it and this is helping me cope--the losers take a post-graduation road trip and richie and eddie have a Moment





	the land of the living

**Author's Note:**

> the conversation at the very end is based off of lyrics from the song 'land of the living' by roo panes (which inspired this whole fic honestly and it's a fantastic song that always makes me think of reddie

They’re leaving together and never going back. All seven of them have packed up their lives into the back of Richie’s pickup truck and piled into Ben’s minivan, currently hurtling through the outskirts of Derry, Maine towards Boston, Massachusetts.

Stan and Richie are in the truck, Stan because he got anxious in cars full of people and preferred to listen to his podcasts and drive in silence, and Richie because he didn’t want anyone driving his “baby” without his supervision, as if he wasn’t constantly driving as recklessly as possible, and he also had taken it upon himself to make Stanley have fun, which was arguably not fun for the latter.

The others were piled into Ben’s hand-me-down minivan passing around bags of snacks and blaring Beverly’s road trip playlist so loud that the boys in the truck in the next lane could hear it even with the windows up.

They had only just left their meeting point at Bill’s house after spending all morning packing their belongings into the bed of Richie’s truck. After the late start, there was no way any of them could possibly hold back their cheers when they finally spotted the ‘Now leaving Derry, Maine’ sign just down the road. Eddie rolled down the window beside his seat, closest to the next lane and the boys in the truck. He leaned his head on the door, letting the wind whip his hair across his face as they all cheered at the top s of their lungs.

Eddie nearly had a heart attack when he saw Richie prying open the rear window of the truck and crawling out of it.

“_Richie!” _He shrieked, still staring in disbelief as the boy in question stood with one leg in the window and the other mounted atop the pile of bags and suitcases, his hair flying everywhere, nearly masking his wide smile. “What the fuck are you doing?!”

Richie turned his gaze towards the van and beamed at Eddie like he hung the stars in the sky. He cupped his hands around his mouth and simply screamed to the open road and the town behind them as they buzzed past the Derry town sign.

_“Fuck Derry, Maine and everyone in it!” _Richie screamed into the wind, Eddie unable to keep his eyes off of his best friend. The daredevil of a boy turned to face the van in the next lane. _“We’re finally free!”_

The entire van erupted in screams and cheers and Eddie could even see Stan smiling to himself in the truck as he glanced in the rear-view mirror at his friend.

Eddie couldn’t stop thinking for the rest of the drive about Richie standing in the bed of his truck with the wind in his hair and the most relieved and unrestrained grin on his face that he’d ever seen in the last twelve years that they had been friends.

* * *

That night, they stopped at a motel just inside the New Hampshire state line and even though they all split up into pairs and a trio in the rooms, they all congregated to Ben and Bev’s room where they all hung out and ordered a shitload of pizzas. Everyone was spread around the room, pizza boxes across the floor as they all told stories and laughed, feeling more at home in a shitty roadside motel in a town aptly named Freedom, New Hampshire than they ever had in Derry. All they needed to make a place feel like home was each other.

Mike and Richie laid on their backs, side by side in opposite directions in the middle of the floor, both shoveling slice after slice of pizza into their mouths like a funnel. Stan sat crosslegged on top of the small dining table with Eddie sitting sideways in one of the accompanying dining chairs, his legs hanging over the armrest so he could occasionally kick Richie in the arm when he reached for another slice. Bev was laying on the couch, her head in Ben’s lap as he laid flat and she sat upside down with her back and head on Ben and her legs on the back cushions. Bill sat dramatically sprawled on the small kitchen counter, occasionally standing on top of the counters to throw chips and crackers across the room for Richie to miraculously catch in his mouth. Music was playing from someone’s phone somewhere and it was almost entirely masked by the sound of laughter.

It was nearing two o’clock in the morning when most of the Losers had retreated back to their rooms, Richie and Eddie included. The two boys took turns showering, Richie taking the first shift to give Eddie a chance to run his miniature vacuum cleaner on the bedsheets just to make sure they were as clean as they looked. When the taller boy emerged from the bathroom with his long, curly hair dripping wet and plastered to his face, water droplets dripping down his bare chest all the way to his sweatpants hanging around his hips, Eddie couldn’t help but stare for just a moment.

When he himself finished up about ten minutes later though, Richie was seemingly nowhere to be found. His first instinct ever since he was thirteen was to fear for the worst. That _It_ was back and It had taken Richie and he’d never get to say goodbye and tell him how he felt and-

It was his first instinct, but not his last. He took a glance out the window and noticed a cloud of smoke blowing past, almost certainly coming from Richie.

He huffed, wrapping the t-shirt of Richie’s he had long ago stolen tighter around his torso. As he stepped outside onto the balcony that spanned the second-floor rooms, he spotted his best friend leaning against the balcony, cigarette smoke drifting past his lips.

“Rich?” Eddie spoke up, stepping closer to stand beside the other. Richie turned around to lean his back against the railing, a strange look painting the boy’s face.

“Eds,” Richie spike back, a yawn stealing Eddie’s chance to refute the nickname. “Fancy seein’ you ‘round these parts, darlin’.”

He huffed a sigh, leaning his elbows on the railing and staring out at the highway. “I’m too tired for the Southern Guy right now, asshole,” he softly argued, unable to even try to contain the exhaustion in his voice.

Richie just nodded and took a long drag from his cigarette, purposefully turning his head away from Eddie to avoid blowing smoke in the boy’s face.

“I can’t believe we’re finally free,” Eddie said with a dopey, sleep-drunk smile on his face.

“This is the real world, Eddie Spaghetti,” Richie smiled back. “The way it was always meant to be if Derry hadn’t fucked us all over.”

Eddie snorted a small laugh at that, which Richie seemed to find relieving.

“We don’t have to hide anything anymore,” Richie continued wistfully, turning around to match Eddie as he leaned against the railing on his elbows, knocking their shoulders together gently. “No more secrets.”

Eddie bit his lip as if contemplating something deeply before looking Richie dead in the eyes.

“If I tell you something really important, can you promise not to be a fucking trash mouth about it and just listen?” Eddie was visibly shaking and Richie stubbed out his cigarette on the railing, turning to face his smaller friend. “Like, I told myself I would never tell _anyone_ this, important.”

Richie waited for a moment, studying the boy’s terrified face as he twirled his unlit cigarette between his fingers.

“Eds, you don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t-“

“I’m gay, Rich,” Eddie interrupted, staring down at his hands as he felt the other boy’s eyes on his face.

There were just so many stars out there in the middle of nowhere that their eyes seemed to twinkle and Richie was certain right then that he had fallen in love with a literal angel. He didn’t say anything for a moment, his thoughts drifting to Derry’s very own Kissing Bridge where the only proof of his love for the small asthmatic boy beside him remained. They left their mark on Derry, whether Eddie knew it or not.

It wasn’t until he heard Eddie sniffle quietly that he was snapped out of his haze.

Fuck.

He made Eddie think he was mad.

Way to fucking go, asshole.

“Eddie, I’m so-“

“It’s fine. Really, I get it. I hated myself because of it for most of my life,” he spoke, finally looking up at Richie so the taller boy could see his watering eyes. Richie was sure that what he was about to do was definitely not how he had envisioned it all of his life, but words were never his strong suit anyway. “It makes sense that you’d hate me too.”

Richie felt his heart drop down through the floor and plummet towards the center of the Earth and all he wanted was to force the words out of his mouth that would make it all okay, but he couldn’t do it.

“_Eds_,” he croaked, his voice cracking as he reached a shaking hand to rest against the side of Eddie’s neck, his thumb gently brushing his jaw.

A tear slipped down the other’s cheek and Richie didn’t hesitate to brush it away. His eyes held so much trust and so much pain that it made Richie sick to think he’d hurt him, even unintentionally. He had to fix this.

When his lips met Eddie’s, there were no fireworks. There were no butterflies, there were no world-shattering epiphanies, just the reconnection of two halves of one whole coming together in the way they had always meant to be.

“_I love you_,” Richie spoke against his lips, unable to hold himself back any longer. “I’ve _always_ loved you.”

Eddie pulled back from their embrace, his lips slightly parted with stars in his eyes and blush in his cheeks looking like the dictionary definition of beauty.

“I could never…” Richie paused blinking hard to stop his eyes from watering. “I could _never_ hate you. Not for that, not for anything. You’re my whole world, Eddie Spaghetti.”

The fond smile that crossed the other’s face looked so natural and so relieved that they both felt like all of their previously broken pieces were falling into place. Eddie kissed him again, harder this time as he threw his arms around Richie’s neck and stood on his tiptoes to pull their bodies flush together. Richie continued to hold his jaw with one hand as the other slipped around Eddie’s waist and held him to his chest. When they finally broke apart again, Eddie pressed his forehead to Richie’s, their breath mixing and their hearts beating rapidly.

“I love you too,” he breathed, still slightly winded from the kiss. “I didn’t even know what it felt like to truly love someone until I met you.”

Richie’s smile could’ve lit up the whole globe and if he had any say in the matter, Eddie decided he wanted to see that smile every day for the rest of their lives.

They stood out on that balcony for ages without even saying anything. They just stood there with their arms around each other, Eddie’s arms around Richie’s torso, his head pressed against the taller boy’s chest, and Richie’s hands around Eddie’s shoulders, his chin resting on top of the other’s head.

It was nearing three o’clock in the morning when they finally moved to go back inside. Richie hadn’t stopped smiling for even a second and it made Eddie happier than he’d ever admit that he was the one who put that smile on his face.

“Freedom looks good on you,” he admitted, watching Richie carefully as he tied his hair up with a hairband he had snagged from Bev’s purse.

Richie chuckled lightly glancing over to meet Eddie’s eyes with adoring mischief in his gaze.

“I was born to be free, Spaghetti Man,” Richie answered like it wasn’t the one thing Eddie had always been sure of. Ever since they first met, Eddie could feel it in his bones that Richie Tozier was the perfect embodiment of adventure and spontaneity. Nothing had changed as they’d grown older other than the fact that, for the first time ever, Richie looked relaxed. Like he’d spent his whole life with an insurmountable weight on his shoulders that he finally left behind the moment they left Derry. And now he knew that there had been something weighing him down all those years.

The same Richie Tozier that made Eddie feel like he was actually worth something in this world for the first time in his life when they were kids. The Richie Tozier that protected him against anything, the _same_ Richie Tozier that told him he deserved so much better than the shitty life his mother had forced onto him and made him actually believe it for once. The Richie Tozier that brought him the best friends he’d ever had and the only true happiness he’d ever known just by making him live a little.

“You were born to free me,” he barely whispered, a smile on his face as he felt Richie kiss the top of his head, their hearts beating in sync and for all the same reasons.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! i haven't written for 'it' since 2017 and sadly i deleted those works (because they were garbage lol) but i'm so excited to get back into it! i posted one other one shot in this collection of song fic-style one-shots, but hopefully this will become a proper series...so comment if you have any requests for future fics!!


End file.
